And You Thought Life Couldn't Get Weirder
by blindkitten
Summary: After homecoming, things are a little odd - just as Will thinks he's gotten used to his new best friend, he's got to deal with Warren's slightly insane home life - not to mention the return of Lash and Speed, who might not be enemies after all...
1. Layla

_**AN: This will most likely be updated sparsely, since I'm working on two other fics, and have a tendency to writer's block after a while on the same story (the reason for me even writing this). If it gets wildly popular by some strange chance, I will continue. If not, I will continue much slower.**_

"_Most people have a harder time letting themselves love than finding someone to love them." –Bill Russell_

Disclaimer: I don't own Sky High

Chapter One: Layla

In the few months since homecoming, Will and Layla had come to spend even more time at the Paper Lantern, often doing their homework or spending the afternoon there with Warren. Warren didn't show it, but Layla always thought he enjoyed their presence, and he would often stop by to talk to them when he wasn't actively working.

Layla was absorbed in her own thoughts (it was getting late, and she did that) when Will asked her something. "Sorry," she said, flinching at her own silliness. "I wasn't listening."

"We're walking Warren home," Will told her, smirking a little. "C'mon!"

She was honestly rather tired. The nights were getting cooler, the leaves had mostly turned, and although there was beauty in fall as well, she was really more at home in the summer and early September. Mostly, she just wanted to go home, but Will was walking Warren home, and she didn't want to just leave. Not to mention, this _was_ the first time in months Warren had agreed to let them even see his house, and she didn't want to miss the chance to find out more about her new friend.

"So, Warren, what's the occasion?" Will asked. Layla let him do the talking, even though he still seemed to have difficulties not making Warren uncomfortable. "You don't usually… you know, like us coming home with you."

Warren shrugged, looking away. "I… guess… I don't know."

Layla frowned. Will's parents had had a hard time with accepting Warren, maybe Warren was afraid of his mom doing the same thing? "Your mom is okay with Will, right?"

Warren pulled his shoulders together. "I don't live with my mom," he whispered, as if he just wanted to sink into himself and die. "Um… I guess that's why." As Will and Layla exchanged looks, they rounded the corner, and Warren nodded at a house across the street, seeming glad they were there and also uncomfortable that he couldn't turn back anymore. "That's where I live."

He rushed across the street with an obvious, 'Let's get this over with quickly,' attitude. Layla and Will followed, a bit slower. Warren slid a key out of his pocket, unlocking the door and pushing it in. "I'm back from work!" he called, letting Will and Layla in.

The house smelled something like baked apples, with a hint of pumpkin. It made Layla happy it was fall, and she wondered if the smell was seasonal. Either way, it was comfortable and homey, and Layla liked the house already. The paint on the walls was somewhat drawn on and scratched, but it had nice colors, and seemed to follow the fall motif, with a mixture of beige, reds and oranges. Layla kicked her shoes off and stepped onto the surprisingly warm tile.

As she surveyed the inner regions of the house from afar, she was aware of a scurry of voices, until one emerged louder than the others. "Get real, Warren, is that a social life? Righteous, dude."

The voice was oddly deep for the person it belonged to, a girl possibly a few inches taller than Layla herself. She had mid-length, jet-black curls and strikingly blue eyes. She was pretty, partly due to the makeup she was wearing, but her face had a sort of mischeviously demonic look that made Layla want to be slightly wary of her, even if she did seem likable. She wore a loose dress and a long necklace filled with small bells and beads.

She had her legs thrown onto the sofa, and was working on some kind of worksheet. "What're you doing?" Warren asked, rolling his eyes.

"Applying to be Medulla's lab assistant. Now that Miss Goody-Goody turned out to be an insane villainous who-" a shoe hit her in the head from an unseen part of the house. "_I was gonna say 'who-knows-what,' hoser!"_ she screamed. "Anyhoo, the point is I might just get the position this time."

"Joy," Warren said. "I get to see you more times a day."

"Ahahaha-ha-HA," the girl said in a monotone. "Don't wig out."

"Guys, Coyote, Coyote, guys," Warren said, nodding to indicate who he was talking about.

"S'up, guys? Will Stronghold and Layla… something, it's not as famous, I'm afraid."

"Williams," Layla said quickly, looking at Warren questioningly.

"This is my foster sister. She's a junior, and Martin, who is somewhere over that way…"

"And without a shoe at the moment," Coyote added.

"…Is a senior. He's… not very social."

"Hi, Pot, meet Kettle. Oh, and the random munchkins you'll encounter randomly are also wards, and are collectively known as munchkins. At the moment they are peacefully avoiding sleep somewhere back there. Just throw things at them if they get too lo-" Another shoe flew out and clipped Coyote in the back of the head. "MOTHERF-" she screamed, poofing into a cloud of black smoke. A moment later, there was a muffled cry and the sound of a scuffle.

"Well… uh… She's an acquired taste," Warren said, awkwardly rocking back and forth on his toes. "My foster parents usually get home later in the evening, but you can stay to meet them."

Will shrugged good-naturedly. "Sure, I'd love to meet them, if we're not underfoot."

Warren laughed. "The munchkins are as underfoot as it gets, a few teenagers aren't gonna make much difference in the general chaos of things," Warren said. "We can stay in our room. I think Martin's going to be a little busy for a while."

"You guys share a room?" Layla asked curiously.

"Yeah. We only have three bedrooms, so it's sort of a puzzle where everyone fits. The girls' room is packed. Coyote sleeps under the bed."

"Really? Doesn't she mind?" Will asked.

"I think she likes it under there. She's sort of like our very intelligent pet dog. She even has the tail to prove it."

"She has a tail?" Will cried in utter amazement. "No way!"

"Yes way!" Coyote screamed from the other room. "It's soft!"

Layla and Will exchanged looks and burst into laughter. "She seems fun to have around," Layla told Warren, who grumbled slightly but nodded anyway.

Warren's room had two bunk beds. The two bottom bunks were messy and had homework, dishes, shoes and socks throw in them, while the top bunks were strangely neat by comparison, with matching covers and neatly fluffed pillows. The room was fairly small, and it was adorned by posters of rockstars, an electric guitar, and large speakers. It smelled a bit like burnt rubber, and Layla had to scrunch up her nose slightly.

"So, um, yeah, this is our room," Warren said, looking awkward again. He shut the door, and turned back around to watch them with an expectant look. "What do you think? You know, of the house?"

Layla almost found his nervousness funny, but she stifled the laugh and smiled encouragingly. "It's great!" she said. "It's very homey."

Will nodded. "Yeah, it's a cool place. I don't see why you were so scared to bring us here."

Warren grimace. "You don't mind that I live in a foster home?"

"Warren," Will raised his eyebrows. "We became friends after you tried to kill me and hated me for more than a month. You could live in a dumpster and we'd still be friends. I might expect you to shower, yeah, but I wouldn't care."

That made all of them laugh, and the conversation was quickly swept away. Layla stayed to meet the middle aged couple that Warren lived with, faintly registered that they were very nice, and then quietly excused herself. Will was enjoying himself, and so she let him stay and walked home on her own. As she did, she pondered on Warren. She didn't entirely understand him, and she thought that, as quickly as they had become close friends, Will didn't either.

The next morning, she went to school to find Coyote sitting on Medulla's desk with a smug look on her face. Layla still had plenty of time before class, so she went in to talk to Coyote. "So, I guess you got the position," she laughed.

"Absotively," Coyote said, ignoring the fact that 'absotively' wasn't a word. Now that she wasn't sitting on it, Layla could see her tail as it swung lazily around her head. It was as black as her hair, and looked like a cat's tail. "And I just talked to my best friend, which doesn't happen often."

"Oh?" Layla asked curiously. "Why not?"

"He's been out of school for a little while, you know," Coyote explained. "But he's coming back now, and it looks like… well, things are sort of working out," She paused, watching Layla pensively. "You know Speed, right?"

"Warren!" Layla yelled, running to catch up with him. It was between classes, and Warren happened to be alone. "Why didn't you tell me that Coyote hangs out with Speed?"

Warren's face turned sullen. "She hasn't 'hung out' with Speed since freshman year," he growled.

Layla widened her eyes slightly. "Well she's '_hanging out'_ with him now. She was all happy that he's coming back to school when I talked to her this morning."

Warren sighed. "Look, I don't what's up between her and Speed, but she stopped talking to him because he was a bully. Coyote is a little rough, but she's not a bad person. If she's happy about being Speed, it's because he's… I dunno, shaping up or something. Besides, they wouldn't let him out of prison if he was still being a total jerk, right?"

"Okay, okay," Layla admitted. "I did kinda get carried away. Besides, what does it matter if your foster sister hangs out with the school bully?"

"Well, Coyote in general is slightly disturbing sometimes," Warren shrugged. "And you're talking to one of the most judgmental guys in the history of the earth."

Layla laughed. "It's okay, we love you anyways."

Warren rolled his eyes. "Layla, you love everyone."


	2. Speed

"_Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." –Maria Robinson_

Speed tested walking a few times. His legs felt oddly heavy, and he grimaced. Powers looked at him, eyebrows raised. "You seem uncomfortable," she said.

"Eh... I'll manage," he grinned.

Powers nodded. "The cuff is only for two months. If you're keeping within your probation rules and bringing your grades up, you get your powers back."

"Won't lie, it's annoying, but it'll at least keep me on track..." Speed mumbled. He wasn't looking forward to improving his grades - they were as bad as could be, and the only way he'd been passing was with cheating. Somehow, that didn't seem to be a good idea on probation. "What about P.E.?" he asked suddenly.

"Boomer has... agreed to giving you and Lash A's for the time while you don't have powers. In the meantime, you can use you P.E. time to work on other studies."

Speed laughed. By the way she said it, it was obvious that Boomer would have rather made them play 'Save the Citizen' without powers as well. It wasn't surprising, given the vulture that he was. "Hey, could I make a phone call?" he asked suddenly.

Powers nodded. "Here," she said, handing him his old cellphone. "No reason for it to be confiscated now. I'm going to go check on Lash."

Speed took the phone. The number was still number two on his speed-dial list, right after Lash, but it took him forever to push the send button anyway. It rang twice as always, and then was picked up. "Yello!" came the cheery voice. "What brings you to these broadcasting parts, hmm?"

"Do you even speak English, woman?"

"Nyever, my friend. I take it you aren't in the shutter anymore?"

"Probation for good behavior. I have to wear a dorky looking cuff that takes away my powers, and I need to bring my grades up."

Coyote laughed loudly, making sure Speed heard how hard it was for her to stop. "Oh, that's good. You, bring your grades up? They actually expect you to not be a failure?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence… Could you just offer to tutor me like a good friend?"

"Psh. If I was a good friend, I wouldn't hang out with a loser like you."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"You have P.E. free, I'm guessing? Come over, I'll tutor you while I'm being lab assistant and fun stuffs like that."

"Sounds like a deal. I'll get Lash to come too."

"Sure, whatev."

"See you later."

"Toodles!"

Speed closed the phone and went after Powers to see what Lash was doing. Lash hadn't been in the best of moods for a while now, and the last time Speed had seen him glower so much was in seventh grade; about the same time he became a bully in the first place. It was nothing compared to the way he looked when Speed finally caught up with him.

He had his hands in his pockets, and was walking stiffly (duh). But the look on his face was very much descriptive of how he felt. "Dude, what's with you?" Speed asked.

"None of your business," Lash snapped.

Speed recoiled slightly. "Okay, it's just… I just talked to Coyote, and she's going to tutor us in science."

"Like you really give a damn."

Speed gritted his teeth. Suddenly everyone seemed to expect that he wasn't even going to try. "Look, yeah, I give a damn. Because we screwed up, and if we don't do something about it, we're going to be stuck all our lives in jail, which really sort of sucks, so you know what? Fifth period, science class room. You're gonna be there."

Lash stared at him expressionlessly. "Whatever," he said finally, limping away without another word.

Powers gave them both rides home. Lash said nothing, falling against the window with feigned boredom. He seemed tense and annoyed. Speed thought maybe he should try to make it up to him; but that was what had gotten both of them into this mess. They pulled up to Lash's house, where Lash hadn't lived for all of high school. Lash hesitated, throwing Speed an unreadable look, and then pushed the car door open and sidled up to the house. Powers watched him enter and took off.

Speed was silent as she drove him home. When he got home, he walked in and was greeted by all four generations of his family. They were all happy to see him, but there was the small feeling of an elephant in the room. Heck, make that a T-Rex. With a UFO as a hat.

He woke up early the next morning and hovered around the bus stop. Lash had his own car, and used to take Speed to school with a few built in rockets. The car was impounded now, and he wasn't even sure Lash would take him this morning – which was just weird. The kids at his bus stop were avoiding his eyes, occasionally even crossing the street to get away from him – which wasn't weird at all, just a little painful. He looked down at his feet. He had a feeling this day would be hell.

It felt like forever before the bus came. Ron Wilson, who appeared to be glowing slightly now, received him coldly. Speed paused, then turned to say something, but the bus driver beat him to it. "I bet you're wondering why I'm still a bus driver, huh?" he scoffed.

Speed shook his head. "Actually, I was gonna say hi. It's pretty obvious you liked being a bus driver." He nodded awkwardly and hurried to the back of the bus, trying to avoid whatever his reaction might be, but he could feel the burning looks that were fixed on him.

Lash was picked up about five stops later. He sat somewhere in the middle of the bus, far away from Speed, drawing even more looks and starting a flurry of whispers. Speed bowed his head and waited for the bus to pull up to the school. He wished right now he was still fast, because even running, the time it took for him to clear the lawn and scramble out of view.

The sheer inadequacy of his speed was made painfully obvious by the five senior football players that tripped him and shoved him into the wall. Feeling his face go red, he let them get bored and walk away before even making a move to get up. When he did, he was met with a slightly tan hand with long fingers. It was attached, ultimately to a familiar face – though as many times as he'd seen it lately, this was the first time in a long time it was smiling at him.

"Hey, there, Cyotes," he said, taking her hand. She had her hair up in a pony tail, her face framed by long earrings, wearing her favorite sweater that slid off one shoulder and her favorite jeans. "D'ja dress up all for me?"

"Yeah, 'cause you're so ace," Coyote said dryly.

Speed grinned at her, lifting his backpack back onto one shoulder. "I am amazing, aren't I?"

"Bag your face," Coyote snapped, albeit slightly playfully.

"I'm going to pretend I know what that means, okay?" Speed said, forcing back a laugh, all his problems seeming forgotten.

"Oh my gosh, you need to get the 411, man!" Coyote said, grinning."C'mon, we have the same schedule, I have to suffer you all day…"

"Ditto," Speed said, and they both laughed. She hooked her arm into his and pulled him along.

"So where's Lash?" she asked. "He's not ditchin' on probation, is he?"

Speed shrugged. "He's here, I saw him on the bus. He won't talk to me."

"Saywhanaaaah?" Coyote said, swinging herself into her seat, leaning closer to him. "What the fudge cake happened? You guys are like… peanut to each other's butter, man!"

"He's being all seventh grade again, but more so."

"What happened in seventh grade?" said a voice somewhere over his shoulder. It was Stronghold and his crew, watching him suspiciously. He flinched slightly as he saw Ethan.

Coyote looked at Speed expectantly. Her speech was always cheerfully unintelligible, and this wasn't a happy story. Speed sighed and decided to jump right into it. "His mom died. Car crash. He… uh… well, you know his powers…"

"He saw her die," Coyote said. "And it was, like… really hard on him. He kinda took it out on other people, so he was impossible to talk to anymore. That was when we started calling him Lash, since he would lash out at everyone for everything."

"I was the only one he would really talk to after a while."

"So is that why you're a jerk?" Warren asked bitterly.

"I'm a jerk because I was stupid, not because of my friend. I got used to what he was doing instead of helping him, and I messed the hell up, so sorry," Speed snapped back, tears threatening to come. He turned away to hide them.

"I'm sorry, that was harsh," Warren said with a pause, his voice surprisingly soft. "I understand."

Coyote laughed loudly. "All you bullies, dude. You're all softies." She shook her head, letting her ponytail brush against the sides of her face. "Anyhoo, we'll be late for class soon." She pulled into a run and dragged him after her.

The day passed by almost like it used to, long ago, before anything happened. But even though Lash had the same schedule as them, he always sat far away, never even looking at them, looking gruff and, in a strange way, fragile. It was like he was dead and still there. It hurt to lose your best friend like that.

He felt guilty about watching Lash sometimes when he should have been spending all his time with Coyote to make up for the last few years of never talking to her, but in third period, he caught her looking just as sadly at Lash as he was.

They finally came to their second period with Medulla that day. They set down their things, and Coyote went to check on everyone's project while he got his book out. "Okay, so your next test is on freeze rays," she said happily.

"Joy," Speed said, almost adding something. He didn't, in the end, since Coyote launched into an explanation without even waiting for him. It was difficult to concentrate, especially since Coyote would occasionally use phrases so outdated he wasn't even sure the internet would know what it meant.

Suddenly, she stopped. "I'm listening," he defended, thinking she had stopped to make sure he was paying attention. When she didn't answer, he looked up. Grinning from ear to ear may have been a figure of speech, but she was pretty damn close.

He followed her gaze. Standing in the door, perched somewhere between awkward and moody, was Lash.


End file.
